Australian piggeries targeted by ad campaign

Animal rights group Animals Australia has launched a
radio advertising campaign in Australian capital cities aimed at slamming the
"horrific practices" of intensive piggeries.

The advertisements which uses a young girl to describe the conditions in
which a pig lives, has been named the 'Lucy Speaks' campaign is aimed at
alerting "caring consumers to the truth about how over 90pc of pork, bacon and
ham is produced in this country".

Factory confinement
The narrator
then states that it is commonly accepted that pigs have the intelligence of a
three-year-old human. "They experience fear, pain and many emotions, not unlike
the family pet. Yet most pigs raised in Australia are confined in factory farms,
where they are denied any quality of life".

Animals Australia says sow
stalls trap female pigs in a "barren metal cage barely bigger than her own body"
and should be outlawed in Australia, as they already are in some European
countries.

Labelling
They also argue for the need for labelling of
pork products - similar to that used by free-range egg producers - to
differentiate meat from pigs in intensive farming systems to that from
free-range piggeries.

The pork industry is struggling to respond to the
campaign as the animal rights group has raised enough public donations to run
ads on commercial radio in capital cities for four weeks.

Industry worried
The pork industry is extremely worried consumers may stop buying pork
and bacon. Andrew Spencer, from Australian Pork Limited, says the industry will
have to find a cheaper way to fight back.